Officials sanctioned for Shanghai outbreak at quarantine hotel
Shanghai's Huating Hotel & Towers has been linked to the city's March COVID-19 outbreak.
Thirteen officials in Shanghai were sacked or punished on Saturday over infections at a downtown quarantine hotel, which has been blamed for Shanghai's COVID-19 outbreak in March.
The city government released the investigation report on the central quarantine site at the Huating Hotel & Towers in Xuhui District on Saturday afternoon.
The landmark hotel was converted into an emergency quarantine site for inbound travelers on February 21. Quarantine staff at the hotel tested abnormal in nucleic acid tests from March 2.
The hotel became a medium-risk area on March 5 and returned to low-risk on March 20. A total of 62 people tested positive there, according to the investigation.
City authorities said in March that the coronavirus started spreading from the hotel, after clear epidemiological links were discovered among subsequent cases in Songjiang, Jiading, Minhang, Huangpu, Xuhui and Baoshan districts as well as the Pudong New Area. Gene sequencing analysis and epidemiological investigation showed the source of the infections to be imported cases.
The city government established an investigation team on the Huating hotel on March 13.
Investigators have found the government bodies and officials of Xuhui District, the district's health commission and civil affairs bureau as well as the Xujiahui Subdistrict failed to fulfill their responsibilities over COVID-19 prevention and control.
During the management of the hotel, they failed to make reliable institutions or implement the closed-loop management. The self-inspection and rectification were also formalistic.
"These management oversights caused infections among the quarantine staff and led to severe outcomes and great impact," the report said.
Cao Liqiang, Party secretary of Xuhui, was seriously criticized. The top district official was asked to write a self-criticism and make sure to rectify. Zhong Xiaoyong, director of Xuhui, received an intra-Party warning.
Two deputy directors of Xuhui – Gao Tian and Fang Lei – were removed from office and received a serious intra-Party warning or demotion.
The heads of the Xuhui Health Commission and the district's civil affairs bureau were removed from both Party and job positions.
Another seven officials received Party discipline and administrative sanctions as well as official admonishing conversations.
